Physical modeling of triple near-Earth Asteroid (153591) 2001 SN263 from radar and optical light curve observations

    Authors

    T. M. Becker; E. S. Howell; M. C. Nolan; C. Magri; P. Pravec; P. A. Taylor; J. Oey; D. Higgins; J. Vilagi; L. Kornos; A. Galad; S. Gajdos; N. M. Gaftonyuk; Y. N. Krugly; I. E. Molotov; M. D. Hicks; A. Carbognani; B. D. Warner; F. Vachier; F. Marchis;J. T. Pollock

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Icarus

    Keywords

    Asteroid; Near-Earth objects; Satellites of asteroids; Radar; observations; Photometry; Asteroids, rotation; SMALL BINARY ASTEROIDS; 1999 KW4; ROTATIONAL FISSION; ANGULAR-MOMENTUM; TIDAL EVOLUTION; SHAPE MODELS; RUBBLE PILES; POPULATION; SYSTEMS; OBJECTS; Astronomy & Astrophysics

    Abstract

    We report radar observations (2380-MHz, 13-cm) by the Arecibo Observatory and optical light curves observed from eight different observatories and collected at the Ondrejov Observatory of the triple near-Earth asteroid system (153591) 2001 SN263. The radar observations were obtained over the course of ten nights spanning February 12-26, 2008 and the light curve observations were made throughout January 12 - March 31, 2008. Both data sets include observations during the object's close approach of 0.06558 AU on February 20th, 2008. The delay-Doppler images revealed the asteroid to be comprised of three components, making it the first known triple near-Earth asteroid. Only one other object, (136617) 1994 CC is a confirmed triple near-Earth asteroid. We present physical models of the three components of the asteroid system. We constrain the primary's pole direction to an ecliptic longitude and latitude of (309, 80) 15. We find that the primary rotates with a period 3.4256 +/- 0.0002 h and that the larger satellite has a rotation period of 13.43 +/- 0.01 h, considerably shorter than its orbital period of approximately 6 days. We find that the rotation period of the smaller satellite is consistent with a tidally locked state and therefore rotates with a period of 0.686 +/- 0.002 days (Fang et al. [2011]. Astron. J. 141, 154-168). The primary, the larger satellite, and the smaller satellite have equivalent diameters of 2.5 +/- 0.3 km, 0.77 +/- 0.12 km, 0.43 +/- 0.14 km and densities of 1.1 +/- 0.2 g/cm(3), 1.0 +/- 0.4 g/cm(3), 2.3 +/- 1.3 g/cm(3), respectively. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.

    Journal Title

    Icarus

    Volume

    248

    Publication Date

    1-1-2015

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    499

    Last Page

    515

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000348411000034

    ISSN

    0019-1035

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